Sometimes Windows does not read your user profile in the proper way, so the OS loads with a temporary user profile that looks like a new one. If you do not know this profile is a temporary one, you will be shocked to see the new desktop without any of your files, program shortcuts, folders, and customized settings. If you have come across the message, “You have been logged on with Temporary profile”, then follow the steps outlined in this how-to guide to fix the issue.
How to Fix It on Workgroup Environment
- Before you do anything, reboot your system twice or thrice to see whether it is going back to the correct profile. If this does not work, then proceed to the subsequent step.
- Rename the temporary profile registry on Windows, and change back the previous settings of it for the right profile. This step will most likely fix the issue. To apply it, follow the steps mentioned below.
- Sign into the system with the temp profile.
- Press the Windows and R keys at the same time, type regedit in the Run box, and press the Enter Now, you are in the Registry Editor.
- Go through the following path to the ProfileList
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
You will see many similar keys below ProfileList, but the one with .bak extension is your old user profile. The issue system will be logged in with temporary or new profile with the new key (which does not have .bak extension). So rename the temporary profile key, and get rid of .bak from the old/correct one.
- That is it. Now, shut down the system and log back in with your username and password. Then, you should get your right user profile with profile settings and icons back on the desktop.
However, if Windows 7 loads again with the new profile and makes the .bak registry key, that means your profile is corrupted and the OS is reading it improperly. If that is the case, then follow the steps mentioned below to fix the issue.
- Sometimes repairing the corrupted files have worked for some people. Often, the NTUSER files that are corrupted cause the issue. So, run a check disk on system reboot for your partition with the user profile. In fact, you can have it run on the next restart by applying the following steps.
- Press the Windows key, type cmd in the search box of the Start menu, right-click on cmd in the search results, and choose Run as administrator from the pop-up menu. When Command Prompt opens, type chkdsk and press Enter. You can run it with more parameters, such as this: chkdsk c: /r. Executing this command will check the C: drive and will try to repair any found errors.
- If you get the message that reads, “Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process”, then enter Y to reboot the system and let the tool run a scan on next boot.
- Once you have entered Y, exit the Command Prompt
- Reboot your system.
- On next boot, it will automatically do a scan of the drive.
After rebooting Windows to run the utility, if you see corrupted entries and the repairing process in your profile folder, you can expect a good outcome here. If check disk finds and repairs corrupted files, then you may get back your earlier Windows 7 profile.
Try System Restore
Windows system restore is one more solution to try before you proceed to the subsequent step. Restore will roll back your system to a certain point when it was working fine.
Some users have said this method is a solution for the issue on computers with Windows 7 or later.
In addition, you can try it or a reinstallation of Windows 8 in the case none of the troubleshooting steps work.
If the above-mentioned steps fail to help you out, you have to create a fresh user profile.
Create a New Profile
Essentially, you have to create a fresh user account, sign in with it, and move the data from your previous profile to the newly created one. It is simple to do in a workgroup environment. Create a username in the workgroup or non-domain environment from computer management or control panel. Ensure to add your new user to its administrators’ group.
Sign in with the new username and start moving your data from the previous profile. People usually copy data from the folders namely My Documents, Favorites, Desktop, in addition to Outlook PST files. However, Microsoft recommends copying the whole previous profile save three files.
One of the aforementioned steps is sure to fix the temp profile issue on your Windows PC. Do mention which one has worked for you in the comments section below.
